A Comprehensive Approach for Implementing an Open Source ERP in a Greek Industry

Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERPs) are used as an automated solution for the company's operations in order to provide information to all levels of the organization. But the more businesses are obliged to implement an information system to cope with competition, the less viable is the cost of acquisition and maintenance of the ERP cause of the unfavorable economic conditions. One solution is provided by the Open Source Software (OSS) for the transparency of software and the less expensive implementation. We have conducted an exploratory study about implementing an OSS ERP in a developing anonymous Greek industry. It included recording of the processes of the industry as well as interviews and meetings with company managers in order to elicit the system requirements. Overall, we found that the combination of the industry's ISO related information, the manager's interviews and the cost estimating of the additional requirements that the existing ERP system can't provide, by using the "Use Case Points" method, this can lead to an ERP system economically suitable for an industry.